Do you ever hear two sentences that follow one another and think to yourself, “These two things just don’t add up?” Well, if you listen to OC Matt Canada’s latest press conference, you’ll likely find yourself in that situation.
Canada spoke to reporters Wednesday about the state of the offense heading into the bye week, giving his thoughts on where the unit is currently and what he would like to see when the players come out and attack the second half of the season starting next week.
“I feel really good with where we are,” Canada told the media Wednesday via video from 93.7 The Fan’s Twitter page. “Our players are certainly frustrated and disappointed with our production, but I don’t think there’s a lack of belief in them and in each other and where they think that they can go and understand that they gotta be better, and we’re sitting where we’re sitting. We’d like to be better, but there’s a lot of football left, and I feel like there’s a good vibe from the guys about going out to play the rest of the season and certainly do what they expected to do coming into the season.”
So, Canada feels good with where the offense is, but sees that his players are frustrated with the lack of production and says that they need to do better individually and collectively to achieve the results they wanted heading into the season.
Doesn’t really add up, right?
Pittsburgh’s offensive players have every right to be frustrated as they are currently one of the worst offenses in the league, ranking 29th in total points scored, 30th in total yards, 27th in passing yards, and 30th in total rushing yards. The running game hasn’t scored a touchdown through five games, setting a dubious team, as neither RB Najee Harris nor RB Jaylen Warren has found the end zone. The Steelers are averaging one offensive touchdown a game, seemingly coming on a big explosive play to WR George Pickens or Calvin Austin III, the latter of whom had had very little success coming outside of those double explosive plays.
There is no denying that many of the players on offense must start playing better individually as well as a collectively for this team to start having better results. QB Kenny Pickett needs to be more consistent and stop getting cold feet in the pocket. The offensive line needs to do a better job protecting him while creating lanes for the rushing attack.
However, the players aren’t in control of the scheme that the coaching staff has autonomy over outside of Pickett making checks and audibles at the line of scrimmage. Pickett made that comment yesterday during his press conference, saying that it’s up to the coaches to determine the scheme and the deep X’s and O’s of the running game as well as the passing game. Pickett also said that everything should be on the table in terms of changes to what Pittsburgh is doing offensively, being willing to scrap what’s not working and build off the players’ strengths and do what has proven to work to help this offense get going after the bye.
Canada did mention simplifying and adding things to help the offense, but this is much more than a personnel/execution issue. Pickett hinted at it yesterday, but the offensive system is flawed the way it’s currently set up. Canada as well as OL Coach/Run Game Coordinator Pat Meyer must take a hard, long look in the mirror themselves and look at what they can do better when it comes to adjusting the scheme by cutting out what hasn’t been working and playing more to their unit’s strengthens rather than beating their heads against a wall doing something that just doesn’t work.
Canada isn’t directly calling out his players for the reason this offense has been performing so poorly to start the season, but you don’t see any ownership from him as the man running the show. You saw that with DC Teryl Austin after Pittsburgh got blown out 30-6 against the Houston Texans, saying that it was on him for how his unit performed and that he needed to look at what he was doing to have the defense play better going forward. The defense responded in a big way last weekend, holding Baltimore to just 10 points while routinely getting stops to keep Pittsburgh in the game as the offense continued to struggle.
This will likely be Canada’s last year as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator(at least we can hope.). Instead of sticking with what hasn’t worked for three seasons and refusing to take ownership of the state of the offense, perhaps taking a little bit of the responsibility for the lack of production and looking into schemes that work to Pickett, the offensive line, and the skill players’ strengths would get this offense going in the right direction as well as better execution from the players.
The best leaders take the blame for their units and shoulder that responsibility to get better. It would be nice to see Canada do the same, like Austin did, for a change, recognizing that he is just as much of the problem as a lack of execution from his players and work diligently to rectify it.
